


Golden Hour

by VictoryStar



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2021-01-23 19:27:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21325426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VictoryStar/pseuds/VictoryStar
Summary: Whatever he touches, turns to gold.Don't get too close.
Kudos: 1





	Golden Hour

It's cold.

It always is, this time of year. When the snow is falling and the lakes are freezing over. 

I can't help but feel sorry for those left behind. The birds who weren't strong enough to migrate with the rest; those left to die. 

I feel like I am one of those birds. Left to drift in the freezing water until the ice eventually holds me and pulls me under. 

That's okay. I'll have to make these last hours count. I don't have many left. 

I met Kai Zhang in my first year of college. He was a few years older than me, and had transferred from a smaller school. He came up to me after a lecture, and introduced himself. He kept his hands to himself and refused to shake my hand. I didn't understand why at the time. 

I understand now. 

He was kind, looked nice, and liked similar things to me. He was like the perfect man. 

As time went on, we spent more time together, and a month after we met, he asked me out. It wasn't my first relationship, but it sure felt like it was. He gave me butterflies like a middle school crush, it was pathetic. 

Even though he told me he liked me, he wouldn't touch me. He wouldn't lay a single hand on me. He wouldn't even hold my hand, or brush my hair from my face. He even avoided touching objects. He wore gloves, but would change the pair by the hour. It was a strange system, but it seemed to work for him. People around asked me what was up with him, why he wore the gloves and never touched anything. I couldn't explain it, as much as I wanted to. I had no idea why he wouldn't touch me. 

Until he held my hand. It was about a year and a half into our relationship. We were at the dorm, watching a movie. We were on opposite sides of the couch, not touching at all. At a slow part in the movie, he grabbed my hand. I loved the feeling. It was almost like falling in love again. He felt so warm, for the second he let me hold. 

He seemed to do it without any second thought, as the next moment, he pulled his hand away harshly and looked at me with wide eyes. They filled with tears. 

"I am so sorry." He screamed, but I did not know why. 

His piercing cries were all that I could hear. At the time, I was so worried for him. I had no idea what had him so distraught.

Then I felt it.

The hand he had touched felt cold and hard, as if it was a solid object. I looked down at it, and it shon in the light. 

It sparkled bright in the artificial light of the television, the movie long forgotten. 

He cried and cried and I just stared at my hand, speechless. What had he done to me?

I told him to calm himself, and explain to me what had happened.

At first I didn't want to believe him. His touch turning things to gold? Sounds like a fairy tale. But as the gold color slowly traveled up my arm, I guess there really wasn't any other explanation. 

I was turning to gold, from the outside in. 

It didn't hurt, and I didn't know why. I was turning into solid metal. It was only a matter of time before I was gone, lost to the cold mineral I was becoming. 

He wouldn't calm down after that. He cried until he heaved. Neither of us talked, the only sound his sobs. What could we say, after all. I was dying, I would be dead in a number of hours. It was irreversible.

So I left. I left to sit by the lake. This is where I've been, this is where I will go. 

The lake is serene. The birds who have been left behind join me as I feel the gold reach my insides. 

At least I can now say I died with a heart of gold.


End file.
